NIPOST Launches Debit Cards, Banking Unit

NIPOST Launches Debit Cards, Banking Unit

By Bashir Olanrewaju

The Nigerian Postal Service (NIPOST), which won an agency banking licence, has launched its own debit cards as part of the banking service.

The postal service also unveiled a fleet of 27 vehicles for its courier and logistics unit, as it seeks to take advantage of a surge in e-commerce fueled by the diffusion of mobile phones and a growing availability of the internet.

NIPOST delivery vans.

“It is a multipurpose card for financial transaction, condition cash transfer, payment of bills and many more,” Isa Pantami, the minister of communications and digital economy, said at the official ceremony in Abuja. “The electronic debit card is the first of its kind in the country because it works online and offline, and it is the first time.”

The latest business strategies aim to boost government efforts to get more people into the financial system while enabling the postal service to take advantage of new business trends and innovations.

NIPOST had in its earlier incarnation run the post offive savings bank unit, which collapsed in the 1980s